Summary
The Appellate Division, First Department, modified the defendant's judgment of conviction by striking the probation condition requiring payment of the mandatory surcharge and associated fees, and otherwise affirmed. The court upheld the validity of the defendant's appeal waiver and rejected or declined to review several constitutional challenges concerning firearm licensing and probation conditions. It also upheld other probation conditions, including restrictions concerning associations, curfew, substance testing, and employment or vocational training.
Court
Supreme Court of the State of New York, Appellate Division, First Department
Jurisdiction
New York Supreme Court, Appellate Division, First Department
Decision date
May 14, 2026
Docket number
Ind No. 73722/23; Appeal No. 6633; Case No. 2024-06778
Disposition
modified_and_affirmed
Questions Presented
- Whether defendant's waiver of the right to appeal was valid and what claims remained reviewable despite the waiver.
- Whether defendant's facial Second Amendment challenge to the indictment and firearm-licensing provisions was reviewable and meritorious.
- Whether defendant's as-applied and facial constitutional challenges to probation condition 7 were reviewable despite the appeal waiver and lack of preservation.
- Whether defendant's challenges to the good-moral-character and felon-in-possession provisions were preserved or otherwise meritorious.
- Whether probation conditions 7, 9, 10, 13, and 15 were legally and factually justified.
Holdings
- Defendant validly waived his right to appeal, and the waiver foreclosed review of his excessive-sentence claim and his as-applied constitutional challenges to probation condition 7, while claims that remained legally reviewable notwithstanding the waiver were not foreclosed.
- The appeal waiver did not foreclose defendant's facial Second Amendment challenge, and defendant had standing to challenge the facial constitutionality of the state's firearm-licensing scheme despite not applying for a license; the challenge nevertheless failed on the merits.
- The appeal waiver foreclosed review of defendant's as-applied First Amendment and due-process vagueness challenges to condition 7. Facial constitutional challenges survived the waiver but were unpreserved, and the court declined to reach them in the interest of justice.
- Defendant's challenges to Penal Law § 400.00(1)(b) and (c) were unpreserved because he did not raise them in his motion to dismiss the indictment, and the court declined to review them in the interest of justice. Alternatively, the court rejected the challenges on the merits.
- Nonconstitutional challenges to probation conditions survive a valid appeal waiver and do not require preservation when they implicate the legality of the sentence imposed.
- Conditions 7, 9, 13, and 15 were reasonably necessary and properly imposed based on defendant's possession of a loaded pistol, daily marijuana use, association with negative peers, open drug-sale case, employment circumstances, and vocational plans.
- Probation condition 10, requiring defendant to pay the mandatory surcharge and associated fees imposed at sentencing, lacked a legal basis and was stricken.
Court Document
Open PDFLoading document…